Military

SHAPE News Summary & Analysis

25 February 2003

IRAQ

Two issues captured media attention: the new resolution presented by the U.S., UK and Spain to the UN Security Council and the consequent counterproposal made by France and Germany with Russia’s endorsement. The first is generally seen as an attempt to get the UN to affirm that Saddam did not comply with resolution 1441, in order to soften the public stance, increasingly against an American-led war, in case of military action; the latter as part of a frantic effort to avert a war.
The Financial Times writes that the countdown to a UN decision on whether to back war against Iraq began on Monday when the U.S., UK and Spain put forward a new resolution challenging the Security Council to take action. The resolution, reportedly calling for military action to punish Iraq’s failure to give up its weapons of mass destruction, was soon countered by an alternate plan from France, Russia and Germany that would give Baghdad more time to comply. The new one-page resolution concludes that “Iraq has failed to take the final opportunity” to disarm peacefully offered by UN resolution 1441.
In a related article, The Daily Telegraph argued that France confirmed its role as the leader of the anti-war camp reacting to the new resolution with a proposal signed jointly by Germany and Russia for an intensification of the inspection regime, which could extend the operation until July. Moreover, the daily observes that it requires nine out of 15 members of the Security Council to approve the new resolution and no vetoes from the five permanent members, while so far only four countries, America, Britain, Spain and Bulgaria support military action.
The Wall Street Journal reports, however, U.S. and British diplomats saying they weren’t setting a deadline for the Security Council action following the new resolution, but that they would push for a vote soon after chief UN inspector Blix reports March 7 to the council on Iraq’s progress in acceding to UN disarmament demands.
Reference the French-German proposal, the Washington Post, quoted French president Chirac stating: “There is no deadline, only the inspectors themselves can say when such a deadline is set and how.” According to this plan, notes the newspaper, the inspectors’ major progress report is due in 120 days, but it is not specified what action any violations would trigger. The plan, in short, intends to strengthen the weapons inspection process by laying down specific benchmarks that Baghdad must meet.
On the same subject, The Guardian argues that with China reportedly endorsing this new anti-war initiative, it has the backing of three of the Security Council’s five permanent members.
Le Monde quotes French foreign minister de Villepin explaining that the French-German plan pursues a peaceful solution of the crisis by optimizing the inspectors’ work, program by program in the ballistic, chemical, nuclear sectors, allowing them to be more effective.
In an interview with CBS TV, the New York Times reports, Saddam Hussein said he will resist demands by chief UN inspectors Blix to destroy the Al Samoud missiles, asserting: “Iraq is allowed to prepare proper missiles and we are committed to that. We do not have missiles that go beyond the proscribed range.”

• An anti-chemical warfare unit made up of 69 Slovak soldiers will leave for the Gulf and should be ready for its mission by this weekend, said Slovakia’s defense minister, according to an AP dispatch. The deployment, approved by the parliament early this month, is a measure proposed by the government in response to a U.S. request in case of war in Iraq. But according to a recent poll, in spite of the government support for the tough U.S. position on Iraq the daily notes, nearly three in five Slovaks oppose their country’s participation in a war against Saddam.
  

BALKANS

• The Daily Telegraph reports that Serbian ultra-nationalist leader, Vojislav Seselj, gave himself up to the war crimes tribunal in The Hague yesterday. Serbia’s most notorious politician, he will defend himself against 14 charges of crimes against humanity and violations of laws and customs of war between 1991 and 1993 in Croatia, Bosnia, and Serbia’s northern province, Vojvodina.